Thoughts, musings, ideas and occasionally short rants on the past, present and future of electronics entertainment

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Not Big Enough

Jumping animationnot included

I didn't back Double Fine's second kickstarter project, Massive Chalice, but I did purchase the game when long-delayed version 1.0 finally rolled out. Right away the music struck a cord with me, evocative tunes that conjured up a world of faded memories and half-forgotten daydreams. Sadly, that's about as far as I got before I began to notice...well..."problems" isn't the right word for it, but an experience that felt awfully sterile. Perhaps it's easier to talk about the game in terms of what it needs rather than what it lacks. To ease comprehension though I'll try to break it down into five areas.

Bandits and Rebellions
Considering how much Massive Chalice borrows from XCOM it's kind of surprising that there's no Exalt equivalent in this fantasy themed interpretation. It would be interesting to have a force of (possibly redeemable?) heroes in-league with the Candace. In lieu of open conflicts, inter-house rivalries could add to the experience in the form of duels, tournaments, plots, and intrigue, as well as wards and political marriages (essentially hostage exchanges between families to ensure peace). Basically, add more "Thrones" and "of" in front of the "Game" part.

Personality and Customization
Despite having heroes with personality traits like "cocky" or "rebel," I didn't see any of that conveyed when the characters were on-screen. In fact, heroes appear to be devoid of any passions or motivations. Even basic stuff like "asthma attack" or "hung over" don't have any visual indicator aside from a tiny white text prompt. I understand that house sigils and names were a special contribution made by upper-tier kickstarter backers, but the inability to choose given names (or even nicknames) makes it difficult to keep track of who's who. There's also no "Tomb of Fallen Heroes" (or equivalent) that players can visit to reminisce about past glories and sorrows. For a game centered around bloodlines and ancestry this seems like a major oversight.

I would have been happy with any of these conceptartworks for the over-world map in the final game

Images and Animation
A few more splash screen stills like the one shown in start of a new game would have gone a long way toward defining the world of Massive Chalice. Some in-engine cuts-scenes or images to accompany the text based events (a la Crusader Kings) might give the player more reasons to care about the fate of lands under his (or her) control. The over-world map also suffers from a bland presentation. Three-hundred years is a long time. Stuff should gradually change to reflect the passage of centuries if not decades. At the very least each fortress should have a distinctive look with the appropriate banner flying from its ramparts.

Swapping pixels for polygons might not have been the best idea from a graphics standpoint

Art and Weapons
Pretty as it is, the UI needs streamlining. Some simple icons the player can mouse over for more information or click on to modify would be a large improvement over the current system which requires a lot of menu navigation. Maybe it's just me, but something about the vibrant color pallet makes me think of some mythic kingdom in South Asia. Rather than the oddly generic European medieval vibe of the game, a slightly more stylized look might have helped distinguish the visuals. The exotic weapons wielded by heroes into battle would have complemented those found in middle-ages India quite well. For example the pata, katar, urumi, chakram, bagh naka, and gandasa are all extremely unusual weapons rarely feature in these sorts of games, but great additions nonetheless.

Armies and DNA
The in-game conceit that only a small number of genetically predisposed individuals are able to effectively fight the plant-like Cadence monsters is a bit of a cop-out. At the very least the developers could have thrown in some kind of simple multi-choice system for sieges and field engagements that, in turn, influence the small scale heroes skirmishes, as well as spread of the Cadence. It would have also been nice to have some objectives that were something other than "kill all enemies" during battles. Here's a link to a forum post with some ideas on how vary it up. The strategic aspect of the game would be a lot more interesting if the research unlocks had greater variety too. Off the top of my head something that could extend the lifespan of a single hero, whether it be a potion of youth or "Sleeping Beauty" time stasis, could create compelling player choices with regards to prosecuting the war against the Cadence.

Ancestor count may varyWeapon types subject to change

One last thing I want to mention about Massive Chalice is the amount of funds this game received, 1.2 million dollars and change to be specific. Compare that with a similarly kickstarted game, The Banner Saga, and I find myself wondering what happened. Both are roughly comparable gameplay-wise, and yet The Banner Saga has far more flare despite getting 43 percent less funding. The only rationale I can come up for this discrepancy is that fact that Double Fine is based out of San Francisco. Perhaps it would be better if they didn't develop games in the most expensive city in America? Oh well...here's hoping the mod community picks up where Double Fine left off.